With “lose weight and exercise more” being the number one most commonly broken New Year’s resolution and 60 percent of gym memberships bought in January going completely unused, which means a lot of money and opportunity wasted, the personal-finance website WalletHub decided to take an in-depth look into 2018’s Best and Worst Cities for an Active Lifestyle.
To determine where Americans have the best chance of balancing a healthy diet with ample physical activity, WalletHub compared the 100 biggest U.S. cities across 34 key metrics. Some cities, for instance, lack sidewalks or neighborhood parks while others encourage new fitness centers to open for business.
The data set used to create these active lifestyle city rankings include metrics such as average monthly fitness club fees, public sports facilities per capita, and each town’s share of physically inactive adults.
Best vs. Worst…
— New York has the most sporting-goods stores (per square root of population), 0.4500, which is 16.6 times more than in North Las Vegas, Nevada, the city with the fewest at 0.0271.
— Scottsdale, Arizona has the most public golf courses (per square root of population), 0.0599, which is 37.4 times more than in Cleveland, the city with the fewest at 0.0016.
— Lincoln, Nebraska has the most fitness trainers and aerobics instructors per 100,000 residents, 185, which is six times more than in Bakersfield, California the city with the fewest at 31.
— San Francisco has the highest number of dance schools (per square root of population), 0.0510, which is 36.4 times higher than in Fresno, California, the city with the lowest at 0.0014.
— New York has the most playgrounds (per square root of population), 0.5737, which is 17.4 times more than in Hialeah, Florida, the city with the fewest at 0.0330.
Best Cities for an Active Lifestyle
1. Chicago, IL
2. Portland, OR
3. San Francisco, CA
4. San Diego, CA
5. Seattle, WA
6. Madison, WI
7. New York, NY
8. Denver, CO
9. Boise, ID
10. Minneapolis, MN
Worst Cities for an Active Lifestyle
91. Jersey City, NJ
92. Memphis, TN
93. Garland, TX
94. Laredo, TX
95. Arlington, TX
96. Newark, NJ
97. Bakersfield, CA
98. Irving, TX
99. North Las Vegas, NV
100. Hialeah, FL
